Caring for baby’s first teeth

Prolonged use of pacifiers and baby bottle and permanent consumption of juices, or improper hygiene during the first months of your baby can trigger many problems in their oral development. Take care of the first baby teeth, known as milk teeth; avoid many problems in its permanent dentition.

The formation and hygiene of the baby teeth
From the first weeks of pregnancy, there are forming inside the maxillary teeth of your future child, although infants are not visible for you. Later, around 6/8 months of life will begin to sprout their first teeth.

Recent studies in relation to the oral health, advise the hygiene from breastfeeding – breast or bottle, carefully cleaning the remains of milk from her gums with wet gauze after each feeding. Appearing their first teeth, parents must brush them with a soft baby toothbrush without toothpaste and proper technique, up to three years and at least twice a day.

It is a very common mistake to consider the milk teeth to be something provisional of that it is not necessary to take care, when in fact the health of the same ones is fundamental for the overall growth of the child, a proper diet, learning pronunciation, development self-esteem and socialization, and for the formation and placement of the final denture. Therefore, the first visit to the dentist should be carried out to meet the baby’s first year of life and since then every six months.

Farewell the bottle to their first birthday
Around her first birthday should disappear bottle and regularly use the glass. Your pediatrician will establish guidelines to modify food and incorporate semi-solid foods and later solid but, in general, since the teeth begin to go out, start giving food to learn to chew and have good growth of all the structures of the head.

To avoid tooth decay of the bottle, it is very important to avoid giving your baby a bottle filled with milk or cereals when the child is lying, since the remains of food will be retained in the mouth and can cause very severe pictures of tooth destruction. Overnight, self-cleaning ability of the mouth decreases, so should only drink water.

On the other hand, it is worth remembering that if at birth opt for breast feeding it will be favoring the growth of muscles, bones and other structures of the head, because breastfeeding requires the child to perform a very beneficial kinds of movements. With artificial feeding it is important to take care that the nipple piercing is not large.

Juices abuse harms your baby’s teeth
Perhaps you have not thought that frequent and continued ingestion of fruit juices, natural or packaged, continuous intake can be detrimental to the oral health of your child. This is so because the natural acid that contains the fruit juices and carbonated beverages lowers the pH of the mouth, favoring enamel erosion. In addition, bacteria colonize on the softened enamel and with the natural sugars in fruit juices, form acids capable of damaging the enamel. The mouth has mechanisms to compensate for this by rising the pH cycle in about 20 minutes remineralising the surface.

Therefore, no problem for taking a juice occasionally. Problems arise when taking juice continuously, so that the “drops” continuous on the pH makes ineffective the compensatory mechanisms provided by nature. It is advisable than usual moisture that your baby needs is that of using water and as soon as possible using the vessel, rather than the bottle, it will be better for their proper oral development.